


long away and far apart

by renaissance



Series: Haikyuu!! Rarepair Week 2015 [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/F, HQ Rarepair Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-03-26
Packaged: 2018-03-19 17:47:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3618732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renaissance/pseuds/renaissance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new season brings change, and Hitoka puts some distance between herself and the past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	long away and far apart

**Author's Note:**

> [Haikyuu!! Rarepair Week](http://hqrarepairweek.tumblr.com) Day 2: Distance ~~/ Language~~
> 
>  
> 
> This is the prompt I struggled with the most, and in the end I settled it by taking a more abstract approach to the concept of distance. The focus here is much more temporal and emotional than physical. Also, I wanted to write a HQ!! fic with no boys. And apparently this is the first time this ship has been used on AO3? Cool.
> 
> The title is from the song "My Very Best" by Elbow, which was playing when I decided on the direction I wanted to take this fic. I have long since given up on restricting myself to a weekly quota of song lyric titles, so there will be at least two more this week.
> 
> (In accordance with Rarepair Week's guidelines, neither character is under the age of 18 and I have tried to make this clear in the story.)

“You’re going out?” Hitoka’s mother asks.

Hitoka looks up from the bag she’s packing. “Ah! Yes,” she says. “I’m meeting Kiyoko for lunch.”

“That’ll be nice,” her mother says. “It’s been a while since you’ve seen her, isn’t it?”

Hitoka nods, picking up her bag and scrambling to her feet.

“I’ll see you for dinner, though?” her mother asks.

“Of course!” Hitoka says. It’s been so long since she’s seen Kiyoko, though, so she privately thinks that she’ll stay out a little later than her mother might like.

Her mother’s “Stay warm!” follows her out the door, but Hitoka pushes the wind to the back of her mind and focuses on the daylight. The sun is bright with the first hints of Autumn, and Hitoka counts the number of people she sees in scarves. It's up fifteen from yesterday by the time she reaches the station.

Still, it’s a good day for tea and cakes, and Hitoka’s booked a reservation at a high tea café. She hasn’t told Kiyoko yet—hopefully, it’ll be a nice surprise, as opposed to the bad sort of surprise, which would end in insects at the bottom of their teapots and week-old stale cake.

And she hopes it’s enough. Hitoka would be lying to herself if she tried to pretend that she hasn’t been nursing a crush on Kiyoko since her first year of high school, and even though she knows Kiyoko is straight _and_ has a boyfriend _and_ most importantly, isn’t interested… Hitoka still has some sort of hope that she can’t let go.

The train is halfway to Sendai when Hitoka’s phone starts ringing.

“Kiyoko?”

There’s a cough from the other end of the line. “H-hi,” Kiyoko says. “Hitoka-chan, I’m so sorry, but I don’t think I’ll make it out today…”

She sounds awful, coughing and spluttering and—oh my god, was that a sneeze?! Hitoka recoils from the phone instinctively.

“Kiyoko, please make sure you get enough rest!” she says. “Don’t worry about today!”

As if on cue, the train pulls in at a station and an announcement rings out through the carriage. Hitoka holds her breath.

“You’re already on the train, aren’t you?” Kiyoko asks.

“Y-yes,” Hitoka says, clutching onto her bag as the train doors close and they pull away from the station. “But it’s no big deal! I can just get off at the next station and turn around!”

“I’m sorry to have caused you so much inconvenience,” Kiyoko says, trailing off into coughs.

“Please don’t apologise!” Hitoka says quickly. “Your health is much more important!”

Hitoka can imagine the concessive smile on Kiyoko’s face as she says, “Thank you, Hitoka-chan. We’ll catch up as soon as I’m well again, I promise.”

“Take care of yourself first!” Hitoka says. Really, honestly, she tells herself that it’s not a problem.

They say goodbye, and Hitoka feels her stomach sinking as she hangs up. The train is almost at Sendai, and Hitoka remembers her booking at the café.

Maybe it’s for the best. Maybe if she gets off the train and turns around, pretends the café never existed in the first place, then she can start to forget about Kiyoko. It’s just that, there are so many beautiful girls in the world, but none had ever been as bright and shining as Kiyoko.

But maybe Hitoka should move on.

When the train gets to the station, she’s fully prepared to not even approach the barriers. She’ll just hop across to the platform going the other way, and go home, and maybe call Tadashi and see if he wants to get lunch. It’ll be fine.

Luckily, there’s a train coming from the other direction in just a few minutes, so Hitoka forces herself to think about other things. In fact, she thinks, she could call Tadashi _now_ , so as the train pulls in, she picks up her phone, and—

“YACCHAN!”

Hitoka fumbles her phone and almost hits dial as she catches it. She turns around, struck by a face she hasn’t seen in _years_. And while unattainable high school crushes are still clear in her mind, there’s Tanaka Saeko getting off the train, clear as day. Hitoka blinks, though, just to make sure she’s not seeing things.

“Yacchan, it really is you, right?” Saeko asks. “It’s been so long!”

“Yes!” Hitoka manages, still blinking a bit. “Saeko-san, I thought you were travelling!”

Saeko laughs, large and bright just like her brother. “I was!” she says. “I got back a few days ago. Didn’t Ryuu tell you?”

“I haven’t seen him in over a month,” Hitoka says, “since we’re not studying in the same place, you know…”

“You should keep in better contact with your old friends!” Saeko says. She frowns. “I haven’t kept up with mine well enough. But! You’ve only been out of school for a few months, right?”

“Right,” Hitoka says.

“Then you’ve still got time,” Saeko says. “Ah, crap—was that your train?”

Hitoka just catches the tail end of the train leaving the station.

“Sort of,” she says, “it’s just that, I was meeting Kiyoko for tea, but she’s sick, and I only found out on the train, and even though I had a reservation at a café, I was just going to get on the other train and go home, but then we started talking, and—”

Hitoka trails off, noticing that Saeko is looking at her a bit weirdly. “You mentioned a reservation?”

“Ah, yes,” Hitoka says. “It was for high tea.”

Saeko’s eyes go wide. “Well, heck, I wouldn’t give up on that so easily. If you don’t want to go alone, I can come with you!”

“If that’s not too much trouble,” Hitoka says hesitantly.

“Nah,” Saeko says. “I just had a few errands to run, but they can wait. “After all, I haven’t seen you in _ages_!”

“Let’s go!” Saeko says. “Lead the way, Yacchan!”

 _Well_ , Hitoka thinks, _I did miss the train…_

She heads to the barriers with a heaviness in her heart but a lightness in her step. It’s unsettling, having her plans changed so dramatically and so suddenly. You can’t get more different than Kiyoko and Saeko. Hitoka tells herself that there’s no reason the difference should throw her out of balance.

“So what have you been up to since we last saw each other?” Saeko asks as they leave the station.

“I’ve been settling into a routine with university,” Hitoka says. “It’s completely different…”

“Right?” Saeko says. “It took me a while to get settled too. Anyway, I didn’t know you were studying.”

“Just design,” Hitoka says. “It’s nothing too fancy.”

“Nothing wrong with not being fancy,” Saeko says. “But, speaking of fancy… you did say ‘high tea,’ right?”

Hitoka almost jumps out of her skin. She’s dressed up for the occasion, but Saeko is just in jeans and a singlet—a singlet, in _this_ weather?—and Hitoka is hit by the fear that they’ll be turned away from the café if it’s too high-class. Hitoka herself is only wearing a plain dress, and she’s got a scarf on, and do high tea cafés let you wear big, wooly scarves?

But while Hitoka is busy worrying, Saeko just laughs. “It’ll be fine,” she says. “They can’t kick you out if you have a reservation, trust me.”

“Oh,” Hitoka says. She’s impressed by how quickly Saeko caught on to her thoughts. “I mean… yes! I’m sure it’ll be fine!”

“Ah,” Saeko says, “I’ve missed you.”

It catches Hitoka off guard, and she stumbles on the pavement. Outside the station, the autumn breeze is stronger than near Hitoka’s house. She pulls her scarf tighter around her neck, watching Saeko cautiously from the corner of her eye.

“We’re not far from the café now,” Hitoka says.

“You know,” Saeko says, “in the time since I last saw you, you’ve really matured.”

“Huh?!”

It’s so out of the blue that Hitoka can’t bring together the words for a proper response. She thinks Saeko’s right, though—she’s grown since high school, and maybe with that time behind her, she can put some space between herself and the plans she’s put aside but somehow managed to keep afloat anyway.

And maybe it’s time to put aside her crush on Kiyoko, too.

A few drops of rain begin to fall from the sky, and Hitoka looks helplessly at her watch.

“I hope it doesn’t pour before we get there,” she says.

“Don’t worry,” Saeko says. But when Hitoka next chances a look, Saeko is shivering a bit.

“It really is Autumn,” Hitoka says.

Saeko glances sideways at her. “Hmm?”

“Saeko-san, you can use my scarf, if you want,” Hitoka stutters out, unwrapping the scarf from around her neck.. “I’ve got a jacket, anyway.”

Instead of replying, Saeko makes unintelligible squawking noises as she takes the scarf. It’s a moment before she calms down, and says, “Yacchan, you’re too sweet!”

“Hopefully not so sweet that you won’t want cake with your tea,” Hitoka says. She blushes and looks away. Seeing Saeko in her scarf is almost too much.

Saeko laughs, and it’s the brightest sound that Hitoka has heard all day. “Hopefully!” 

It’s getting colder, now, so Hitoka walks closer to bridge the distance between them, just a bit.

 

(And when Kiyoko calls her a week later to say that she’s on the mend, and does Hitoka want to meet up on Saturday?—Hitoka can say with confidence, “Sorry, Kiyoko, I’ve got a date!”)

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!


End file.
